War Is Boring

Rogue Afghan soldiers and police turning their weapons on their allies are now the leading cause of death for NATO troops. On Aug. 28 a man wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on Australian soldiers in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing three and wounding two.

In key moments during the U.S. Army’s latest war game for advanced communications gear, the troops’ high-tech new radios failed them.

Ares has photos of the Army’s Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence spy blimp, which debuted on Tuesday.

The Army’s football-field-size robot spy blimp finally took to the air for the first time Tuesday at a military base in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The 90-minute first flight of the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, manufactured by aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, is only the beginning of a months-long test program, but it’s still good news. For years the Pentagon had tried and failed to get next-generation airships off the ground.

It’s one of the most dangerous missions on the modern battlefield — and one of the most important. Crews flying big, vulnerable and sometimes unarmed helicopters brave gunfire, bad weather and rugged terrain to snatch wounded troops from a firefight or the scene of a bomb blast.

SAN DIEGO — America’s newest comics publisher has a $200-billion-a-year budget, more than a million employees and just one title in its catalog. At Comic-Con International, the U.S. Army — yes, that U.S. Army — announced the release Friday of America’s Army No. 1, a partially animated digital comic for the iPad and Android tablets.

Video outtakes from the U.S. Army’s Robotics Rodeo at Ft. Benning last month.

Video outtakes from the U.S. Army’s Robotics Rodeo at Ft. Benning last month.

Video outtakes from the U.S. Army’s Robotics Rodeo at Ft. Benning last month.

For 10 sweltering days in mid-June, a small army of crawling, rolling, hopping and hovering robots invaded Ft. Benning, Georgia, a sprawling training post near the Alabama border. The occasion: the U.S. Army’s Robotics Rodeo, a competitive evaluation of the latest ground-combat robots.

The U.S. Army hosted its third Robotics Rodeo at Ft. Benning ending June 29, 2012. Check out some photos from the final day of this competitive evaluation.

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN Leaving home while carrying a phone, an iPad and a laptop might also mean lugging along several tangled power cords. Now add radios and GPS devices. Now strap them to your person and wrap the cords around your body beneath your 30-pound armored vest. Oh, and you’re on patrol in Afghanistan, which [...]